Via Hugh Hewitt is this report:
"The Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has said that if the Republicans made good on their threat and ruled filibusters out of order, he would see to it that Senate business came to a halt."
Well as a general principle I am all for the Senate’s business grinding to a halt. Though I am not quite sure how the minority party leader is going to make good on this threat since last time I checked he is the minority party leader because Democrats are in the minority (fancy that). He can’t pull a Dirty Harry and ask "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" because we know how many bullets are left in his gun and that the GOP currently has more of them. One thing though we need a nuclear freeze on the phrase "nuclear option." Judging by Sen. Specter press conference yesterday if he had also appeared on Groucho Marx’s "You bet your life" and the secret word was "nuclear option" that duck would have been coming down every five seconds giving the Senator 50 bucks. We need to disarm the phrase "nuclear option", heck cut the red and the blue wires. Republicans should only be calling it the "Constitutional Option" which would replace the current super-majority gridlock option.
Hugh Hewitt asks in his latest Vox Blogolli "Does the Senate GOP Go McClellan or Grant if Harry Reid "Goes Gingrich?" Well I say Grant as in General Grant because up to now the Republican leadership has only been given us a Grant as in Lou Grant (Ed Asner). The GOP has had a crusty exterior with a soft heart letting liberals run all over them. Even Gingrich did not go fully Gingrich because in the game of Senate chicken he swerved off the road first avoiding the oncoming Main Stream Media and its starving government employee because of the shutdown reports.
The question is not should we wait to see if another judge is filibustered first, but that we should immediately ask for a change in Senate rules. It does not matter if Democrats play nicely or not in the future because the current 60 vote rule is extra- constitutional in the first place. It also doesn’t matter if Democrats some time in the future can use the 51 vote majority against us. What matters the most is following the Constitution and letting our Republic based on a representative majority be able to make the decisions. The Republican party believed in and supported the line item veto and approved it when Bill Clinton was President. Unfortunately is was later knocked down but this was still an excellent example of principle over partisanship. Why are Democrats so afraid of democracy? What is the fear of the full Senate actually voting up or down on judges. They can advise and consent away – nobody is stopping them. Currently they are preventing other senators their right to advise and consent by preventing judicial nominees.to come to the floor for a vote.
Democrats have been like Lucy and Republicans like Charlie Brown. We keep running up to kick the football and falling to the ground as Lucy once again pulls the football away. We made a bunch of silly compromises when Jumping Jim Jeffords defected from the GOP in the spirit of cooperation. How many times do we have to find ourselves looking up in the sky with stars revolving around our head tell we figure out the the Democrats are never going to play nice and leave the football in place for us to kick. Dump Charlie Brown and go all Ulysses on them, though I wouldn’t hold my breath on this actually happening.
5 comments
How ’bout calling it the “majority vote consensus option”?
I noticed that the Paper of Record editorially proclaimed the filibuster a Bulwark of Democracy, now that it is the resort of people they approve of instead of those evial surnracists. But if they really believe this, why aren’t they calling for the House to abandon its “undemocratic” five-minute rule?
Billy Matthews observed that the average U.S. Representative “can tell you all he knows on any given subject in five minutes. Now, in the Senate they have unlimited debate, and it takes them that long to prove they know as much as we do.”
Though I am not quite sure how the minority party leader is going to make good on this threat since last time I checked he is the minority party leader because Democrats are in the minority (fancy that).
I think the plan is (or at least was originially) to only reinterpret Senate rules to prevent judicial filibusters. In that case, Harry and his boys and girls would filibuster everything else that came to the floor. Even if the GOP were to do away with the filibuster entirely, the Democrats could still slow down Senate business big time by challenging every unanimous consent decree and demanding a vote on everything.
Let Slip The Dogs…
Democrats know what is at stake, and mean to hold their last piece of ground along the Left edge of their flat Earth. By all means, do let’s grant the Left the fight they have been picking and finish this struggle with irrational lunacy once and for …
An excellent post, Jeff.
Using the filibuster in judicial nominations is a violation of the Federal Constitution. The Republicans should stop fiddling around and do away with it.
If Reid and the Democrats want to shut the Senate down in response, then let them. They will be shooting themselves in the foot.
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